Better Man
by pepperamac
Summary: Aidan is out for a walk when he sees something that destiny would like him to be a part of. Rated T for themes, and one single bad word. ;)


**AN \m/(-_-)\m/ :: So I was actually in the middle of another fic when this idea came to me and I had to write it down. I hope you enjoy!**

The weather in Boston was just starting to change and Aidan Waite, like many East Coast inhabitants this time of year, was all too eager to get out of the house. It was because of this that he found himself trudging up and down the back alleyways, dimly lit by buzzing ill-maintained streetlights, dodging the puddles left over from the day's rain. The air still held the dampness that one feels often in Spring, but there was a slight breeze caressing the treetops and lifting the hair off his forehead as he walked. It was cool, but only inasmuch as one would be comfortable sporting a light jacket. Aidan was no exception, as he had donned his usual leather jacket on the way out for the evening.

He was consumed by his thoughts this evening, and was paying no mind to the direction in which he walked. It had been a long and terrifying day. Since the virus' antidote had been found, namely the werewolf blood, Aidan had been trying exceedingly hard to abstain from drinking live, but it was a task that was far easier said than done and as of late he had been desperate to overcome the cravings. Today had been no different as a small girl had been rushed into the emergency room, Aidan assisting. It was a car accident and there had been _So. Much. Blood. _It had been all he could do to focus on the instruments. Scalpel, tube, suction (_the blood to suction the blood out)._ Scalpel again….suction _(The blood oh god it's right there maybe no one would notice if I just)_ There had been several close calls where he could feel the blood pooling in his eyes, his fangs against his lips. Thank God for the sterile mask he had to wear in the ER, but the only thing he could do for his eyes was to avert his gaze and stare intensely at the instruments and hope no one looked at him too closely. It was during one of these times that the code had gone off and her vitals had dropped harshly. There had been an eruption of activity in which the Doctor and all attending nurses had rushed to bring her back. Paddles. No. Adrenaline. No. Doctor Green had even reverted to good old fashioned CPR, but there had been no response. It was as if the young girl had lost the will to fight. Aidan's eyes had cleared just in time for him to catch the last blip of the heart monitor before the screen was covered in one long, continuous line. She was gone.

Now, it was all he could do to push those thoughts from his mind. Dwelling on them… they weren't bringing him any comfort. He couldn't talk to Josh, not with him having only just become a werewolf again-he had his own problems to deal with. The same went for Sally-zombie Sally? Aidan shook his head firmly. No definitely couldn't talk to Zombie Sally about his bloodlust. Or guilt either, really. He doubt she was in the mood to lend a sympathetic ear regarding guilty thoughts.

A noise brought him out of his daze and his eyes rose to the scene before him. A man and a woman, both probably in their early to mid twenties, were exiting a bar up ahead. The young woman appeared to be fine, if not a little irritated and, upon closer inspection, it was easy to perceive why. Her male companion was staggering after her, barely able to keep his footing on the slick pavement. He called after her, and Aidan wouldn't have been able to make out what he said if it hadn't been for his super hearing.

-_Allie, wait!-_

The woman stopped, turned around half way towards him and held her hand out to keep him from stumbling into her.

-_Ross, you're drunk. I'm not going anywhere with you-_

_-I'm fine! Get in the car!-_

_-No!-_

When Aidan saw the man grab the woman's wrist and start pulling her toward the car, he began walking faster in their direction. Regardless of the fact that he was already putting her in danger by driving while intoxicated, the man was now becoming violent over her hesitance to ride with him, and the vampire was in no mood to see anyone else hurt today. He was still about twenty feet away, and her drunken companion was fumbling with his keys trying to find the right one, when the woman's eyes flicked to his face for a moment and Aidan got his first good look at her. She was of medium height, with a slight build. She had light green eyes which, coupled with the dark hair falling over her shoulders and framing her heart-shaped face, made her skin tone look darker than it was. He was sure those eyes would light up with the smiled-if she were smiling. Currently they were filled with something that wasn't quite fear but bordered upon it-more an advanced form of apprehension, Aidan guessed, but before he had time to say anything, the woman shook her head at him imperceptibly and slid into the passenger side of the car.

Simultaneously, the drunken man finally found the correct key and slid into the drivers side. Without a backward glance at the vampire now standing with his hand slightly upraised in the middle of the street, the car sped off into the night.

Aidan sighed and allowed his hand to drop back down to his side, staring after the automobile, and continued on his way.

He was not paying attention to where he was walking yet, after perhaps twenty minutes of following a random mixture of back alleyways and main streets, he found himself standing at the entrance to Boston Commons. In the dark, with the breeze whistling through the trees, and devoid of any patrons, it looked like a completely different place than in the bright sunlight. Normally one could walk by the Commons at any given day and find Frisbee players, dog walkers, picnickers, or just people out for a stroll, but with the recent 'animal' attacks (a media-induced cover story that for Aidan, who knew exactly what those animal attacks really were, made a very poor attempt at covering up anything at all), most everyone in this part of Boston was under lock an key as soon as the sun went down.

Either way, it was nowhere near a full moon and Aidan had nothing to fear from any creatures of the night, and he decided to take a stroll in the park as a last-ditch effort to clear his mind.

Ignoring the sidewalks and dirt pathways, Aidan cut directly across the grass and turned his face to the sky. Being one of the largest open spaces in Boston, Boston Commons was also one of the only places in the city that one could nearly make out the stars through the streetlights, smog, and building fluorescents. This thought did not escape Aidan as his wistfully recalled his farm before the war. Before Bishop gave him this 'gift'. Before he became a murderer and a monster.

As much as it pained him to admit it, Aidan really missed Bishop. He was idealistic and wrong, choosing to view the world as his own personal plaything, to manipulate as he pleased, but in times like this, he always knew what to say to put things into perspective for Aidan.

This was one of those times that he would have really like to be able to seek him out for his advice, but the peace of the park was working its own calming magic on him as he walked, simply enjoying the quiet.

Aidan's ears pricked up as he heard something under toning the silence. It sounded like someone was crying. He angled his body in the direction that the sounds were coming from and made his way toward the row of trees towards the far corner of the park. There, on the bench under the trees he saw an outline of a person, her face in her hands, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. Upon closer inspection, he was surprised to see it was the young woman from outside the bar. Quietly, he made his way up to her.

"Are you hurt," he asked softly, causing her to look up.

Quickly, the young woman dashed her tears away and sniffed, looking up at Aidan in defiance. "I'm fine."

He nodded slowly, but his sense of smell disagreed with her. Sure enough, as he looked her over for signs of injury, he saw blood on her sleeve. He gestured towards her arm. "I'm sorry but…you're not. Do you mind if I take a look at that?"

Suddenly her eyes sparkled with recognition. "Hey, aren't you the guy that was at the bar? Are you following me?"

"No, honestly, I was just out for a walk and ran into you. Twice." At her doubtful look he continued. "Look, you're bleeding and I'm a nurse. You really should let me take a look at that. Please."

Slowly, she nodded and he bent over her, taking her arm gently in her hand. She watched his face closely as he carefully lifted her sleeve over the area in question. "What's your name," he asked her, mainly to distract her in case there was any pain.

"Allison Wallace." She glanced down at her arm and winced as he pulled a thread from the wound. "Yours?"

"Aidan Waite."

"Hey, we have the same initials!" She smiled brightly.

He chuckled at her remark. "Yeah. Hey, this is a pretty deep cut, do you mind if I ask what happened?"

Here, she hesitated. "Well, you saw what happened at the bar, right?" This elicited a smirk from the man attending to her arm. Reading his expression as an affirmative, it caused her to smile and roll her eyes. "Yeah, you saw. It wasn't exactly a private conversation."

"No," Aidan agreed. "Was he a friend of yours?"

"Hardly," she scoffed. "He's the roommate of my best friend's boyfriend. Cliché, I know. They introduced us and we thought, why not give it a shot? I hate to be That Person when I say this but, let's face it, he was way more into me than I was him."

Aidan nodded and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket. She looked quizzically at him, and he shrugged at her. "Old habit," he explained. _Centuries old._ "Go on." He gently began wrapping her arm in the cloth.

"Well we went to the bar, which wasn't my idea of a classy first date, but whatever. Anyway, I had one drink, and in the time it took me to drink that ONE drink, he'd had like six. Talk about an alcoholic."

The vampire smiled at her exuberance and continued wrapping. She winced slightly and sighed, her good mood vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"I wanted to get out of there, and he insisted on driving me back. I told him I was going to just get a cab, but he said it would 'offend his honor.' That's when I walked out, and he followed me, there was a scene, which you saw. Honestly, I just got in the car to keep him from drawing all that attention to himself. He could have been arrested, but he was so drunk he didn't even seem to care!"

"They usually don't." Aidan shook his head and tucked the corner of the handkerchief into itself to keep it from coming unwrapped. He stood slowly and dusted of the knee of his jeans. "So how did you get out here?"

A vacant look passed into her eyes as a strangled sob bubbled up out of her throat. "He was swerving all over the place. I just wanted to get home. I told him to be careful and he got mad. He said he'd heard…things….about me and it was the only reason he'd wanted to come out with me. He started to…" Another sob wracked her body and Aidan's eyes darkened.

That son of a bitch.

She fought back the urge to cry and looked up at him pleadingly. "I'm not like that, I'm not I swear. But he seemed to think…I tried to stop him but he wouldn't get OFF of me! So I jumped."

"Out of a moving vehicle?!"

A slow nod and then she was crying. Aidan pulled her gently up off the bench and into his arms. "Hey, it's over, he's gone." And then, "Come on. I'm taking you to the hospital."

"Oh, God!" she spun out of his grip and emptied the contents of her stomach behind them. "I'm sorry," Allison whispered before another heave overtook her.

"No, it's okay." The assurance in his voice calmed her somewhat. She had no way of knowing that Aidan had seen far worse things than a young woman who'd had a terrible night throwing up in the bushes. He leaned down beside her once again and pulled her hair away from her face. After a moment with no bile, he tried again.

"Come on. Let's get you some help. That arm needs stitches."

The two made their way to the edge of the park, Aidan supporting Allie until she started to feel a little better and began to walk on her own. "So you promise you're not following me?" She asked slightly nervously.

He looked at her sideways to make sure she was walking okay by herself before he answered. "I'm not following you. But it's probably lucky that we were in the same vicinity."

"Right. That's exactly what I wanted. Some ridiculously hot guy to walk up to me after attempted date rape while I'm throwing up and bawling my eyes out. I'm glad we had this opportunity." There was a moment of silence before she sighed and threw her arms up. "I'm sorry. The last thing I should be doing is giving you a hard time. You really helped me out. Thank you." The sincerity in her eyes was all the thanks Aidan needed and he found the horror of his day slightly dulled by the ability to help someone else. After all, it was the reason he'd become involved with medicine in the first place.

There was so much of his history that was involved with hurting people. It was nice to be able to redeem himself if only a fraction. "Not a problem. Where are you from?"

"Connecticut. I moved out here for college. What about you?"

"Virginia. But I've lived here a long time. What are you studying?"

"Criminology. Ironic, right?" She scoffed and gestured towards her wound.

Aidan laughed bitterly and touched the shoulder of her uninjured arm briefly. "You can't hold yourself responsible, Allison. Just…don't get in the car with any more drunk people."

"Oh, no doubt about that. I'll probably never date again."

_That would be a shame_, "Perhaps you've warranted a little break for awhile. At least until a nice guy comes along."

"Nice like you?" She blinked over at him and he wondered if she was asking him facetiously or seriously flirting with him.

Either way, 'like him' wasn't what he had in mind for her. Anything he said to that would have led to more questions so, instead of answering her, Aidan settled for shaking his head and smiling faintly. "Just someone you can connect with. Someone that wouldn't put you in the danger you were in tonight."

He was relieved when she seemed to accept that answer. She looked down at her shoes briefly before looking up in the direction they were headed. Aidan knew she was grappling with regret, shame, pain…any and every emotion associated with the trauma of what had happened to her. As badly as he wanted to take her mind off of it and cheer her up, he also knew this was a wave of feelings she was going to have to deal with sooner or later. Perhaps it would be easier for her to deal with while he was present.

"I never would have thought the night would have turned out like this." While her voice didn't betray an emotion, it was easy to see she was fighting the turmoil inside.

"If you had known you wouldn't have gone out with him," Aidan responded.

It earned him a mischievous look from his new acquaintance. "Maybe. Maybe not." At his bewildered look she threw her head back and laughed. "Nothing happened. I mean, yes it was terrible and yes it was horribly close to being even MORE terrible, but in the end, the only scarring I'm going to have to show for this night is on my arm. And, hell, I moved here looking for adventure, didn't I?" He knew the question was more to herself, and it became clear to him that she was trying to convince herself that she was okay.

He admired her strength. In the past, someone like her would have turned his head most definitely. In the past, someone like her would have made this night turn into something completely different. No. He couldn't think like that. Taking advantage of her while she was vulnerable would make him no better than her 'date' that had attacked her. And he was better than that, wasn't he?

Before his subconscious could argue with him, he steered her back in the direction of the main road. They were nearing the hospital. Only a few more blocks.

The remaining streets passed in silence, and Aidan could just see the sun starting to come up over the buildings, casting an eerie gray and bronze glow over everything. "Here we are," he finally said, pulling her to a gentle stop before the admittance doors. He had been careful to choose another hospital other than the one he worked at. For his good and her own, it would be better if she never saw him again.

She looked at him sheepishly before gazing up at the tall building before her. "I've never been in a hospital before. Well, except for when I was…born…" She looked back to him to find he was already gone. Allison turned in a complete circle looking for him but her rescuer was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, she repeated a final "Thank you," before entering through the doors.

For his part, Aidan was already a half a block away, leaning out of her sight against a building. With his supercharged hearing, the whispered 'Thank you' was not lost on him, and brought a smile to his face. When he heard the barely audible (even for him) _swish_ of the automated doors behind her, he turned on his heel and made his way back towards the apartment. He really had been having a terrible day yesterday, but thankfully it had turned out alright. _And,_ he thought to himself, _I made her day a little better,_

_In the end, maybe that was all it took to help him on his path to redemption. After all, because of Allison, he was a better man today than he was yesterday._


End file.
